Fraud associated with certain documents, for example bank checks, is an old and well known problem. Problems include alteration, counterfeiting, and copying (which may be included as a subset of counterfeiting). Various measures and associated technologies have been developed to protect against fraud. Examples include intricate designs, microprinting, colorshifting inks, fluorescent inks, watermarks, fluorescent threads, colored threads, security strips, holograms, foil printing, and others.
Microtext is a security feature which is used frequently in the form of a signature line or box around the face of a check. For example, a sub-single point text may appear to the unenhanced eye as a simple line, but readable with low power magnification. Because of the small size of the characters printed, this has been limited to lithographically printed text. Lithographically printed microtext protects against counterfeiting fraud in that the fraudster may not be aware of the presence of the microtext or may not have sufficient technology to produce the very small text. Litho text is inherently static because of the production process. Microtext can protect against copying, at least to some extent, if the original text is so small that a copy is difficult if not impossible to read. However, legibility of microprint made with known electrographic printing systems has not been satisfactory.
Furthermore, microtext as it is currently practiced offers little, if any, protection against alteration, for example of the payee and/or the amount of a check. First, the information is static, subject to other static elements in the lithographic printing process. Second, as a lithographic element, the difficulty of removal for the purposes of changing the document is at least different from that of a variable toner image and may be much more durable, permitting toner to be removed from over top of the microtext without disturbing it.